Hey, This Week’s Sarah Connor Chronicles Didn’t Suck

Recently I wrote that Fox’s The Sarah Connor Chronicles was in danger of falling apart. It looks like the show may just make it to Judgment Day after all.

This week’s episode simply didn’t suck. Here are some highlights:

• The show invoked some mythology. Summer Glau’s benevolent terminator saved the day by taking down an enemy unit (a T-888 model). She won the fight by pinning the T-888 to the ground, prying its head open and removing its CPU. Only fans who had watched the extended cut of Terminator 2 would know of this foolproof way to shut down a terminator. I was stoked to see it happen in combat.

• We met a Reese. In my earlier article, I suggested that the Connors should somehow meet Kyle Reese again. Well, the show’s producers gave me the next best thing: Reese’s brother. No bullshit, I got chills when Brian Austin Green (Beverly Hills 90210) told Sarah he had “carried her snap” for awhile (referring to the legendary Polaroid taken in the original movie) – and then when he revealed himself as Kyle Reese’s brother? Awesome. I also enjoyed hearing some post-Judgment Day parlance: “I’m not going to be the one to bring metal down on the Connors.” Nice.

• The post-Judgment Day resistance soldiers learned from Kyle Reese’s first mission. After watching Kyle Reese rant like Cassandra in the original Terminator, I loved watching Derek Reese stonewall Richard T. Jones’ police detective, only offering one creepy line: “We’re all going to die.”

• Speaking of Richard T. Jones – he continues to impress.

• Garret Dillahunt(The 4400, No Country For Old Men) also continues to kick ass in everything he does. One of the growing pleasures of The Sarah Connor Chronicles is seeing other actors play terminators, and while I don’t know what model number Dillahunt’s terminator is, I know it’s a cunning one.

Robert J. Peterson is a writer and web developer living in Los Angeles. A Tennessee native, he graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He’s written for newspapers and websites all over the country, including the Marin Independent Journal, the Telluride Daily Planet, CC2KOnline.com, Offscreen, and Geekscape.net. He co-hosts the podcasts Make It So and Hiram’s Lodge. He’s appeared as a pop-culture guru on the web talk shows Comics on Comics, The Fanbase Press Week In Review, Collider Heroes, ScreenJunkies TV Fights, and Fandom Planet. He’s the founder of California Coldblood Books.

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